Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1887-04-14
THE RAGPICKERS.
ONE ELEMENT OF THE PoPULA-
TON OF A GREAT CITY.

Blue Blood Owners of Horses and
Runmagers of Morning and Night.
Life Scar the Dumps.
Ragpickers form a very important eie-
ment of the busy population of great cIty
like Brooklyn, and careful observation OF
their methods will reveal some curious and
interesting facts. They are properly di-
yided into four distinct classes, each having
a separate field of action and seldom In
fringing upon the territory of the other divis-
ions of the fraternity. The first class, who
could quite properly be called the upper ten
of ragpickerdom, includes the itnerant deal
ers who conduct their business by means OF
dilapidated looking horses and wagons. They
would undoubtedly Indignantly resent their
classification with ordinary ragpickers, but
candor compels me to name them as such.
They nav an annual license fee of S3 for the
privilege of buying the city's rubbish.
They pay higher price FOR goods than
the men who propel the handcarts, and fire.
1uently hire shops of their own for assort-
Inent and storage of their purchases. They
generally carry on a thriving business, and
from long experience and acquaintance
know where the choicest rags are found.
They have regular dates for calling ON small
tailoring establishments in order to secure
the cuttings and trimmings which are too
small to BE- used by rag manufacturers.
They also get the pickings of small shirt
factories, printing houses, book binderies
and a score of similar establishments
THE HAND CART ARMY.
The second class comprises the army of
hand cart dealers who can be seen every
day pushing their trucks, adorned with
from one to a score of motley shaped, sized
and toned bells, along in front of them.
They are avaricious in their dealings, man
age to live in moderate circumstances, and
are willing to purchase a number of articles
which most people classify as rubbish. But
what is rubbish to some people-iron and
other metals, bones and old lpets and null
titude of similar articles-is thus bought by
the thousands of pounds daily. This class
is ALWAYS well posted in the tricks of the
trade. and have CERTAIN streets which they
have drummed for years. By long expert
ence they learn which of their customers
will sell his rags at any price, and which
will haggle with them over the last penny.
They often find unexpected treasures in
their purchases. and rarely return anything
valuable that thus comes within their clutch.
We now come to the third class of rag
pickers, who are by far the most aggressive
in their methods. refer TO the rummagers
who are abroad early in the morning and
late at night, overhauling our ash cans and
ash barrels They are mostly Italians, and
carry huge bags and a long iron hook, not
unlike a stove poker. They are numbered
by the thousands, are almost unacquainted
with the laws and customs Of this country,
live in the poorest class of tenements, and
ind.
try manage to save up quite respectable
bank accounts. The inborn passions of the
Italian race are but little modified by our
climate, or by contact with our people, and
fatal affrays are of frequent occurrence
among them. They are clannish, preserve
their national customs, subsist on the cheap
est food and endure privations and hard
ships that would kill nine out of ten of our
native population. This class take every
thing from a barrel that their hooks will
drag forth-old boots, shoes, hats, rags,
fragments of carpet, bottles, eorks, horse
hair, feathers, paper, wood, coal, cigar
stubs-indeed everything except ashes and
clinkers Often the barrels of brown stone
fronts yield rich finds TO these delivers.
A PLETHoRIC BUNDLE.
One day saw a swarthy fellow stop be-
fore half dozen barrels grouped on the
sidewalk before Clinton avenue house, and
haul forth article after article, among
which were the following: A Turkish rug,
which was not in shreds by any means, and
which undoubtedly saw subsequent service
in the finders bedchamber; an old hat
which was Immediately substituted for a
dilapidated cap on the finders head; old
shoes, rags and articles of tin ware, which
were thrust into his roomy bag, aud an ap-
pie and a crust of bread, which, after few
preliminary polishes on milord's soiled coat
sleeves, were ravenously devoured. He
had arrived at tbs spot with bag having
decidedly emaciated appearance, but left
with plethoric bundle, under whose weight
he could hardly stagger.
Harvest time with all rag pickers comes
in the spring. For then it is that houses
are cleaned, families move, old carpets are
thrown away, old garments are discarded
and thousands of articles find their way to
the teeming ash barrel. Brooklyn pays about
SOS, 900 annually for the removal of its
ashes, and last year over 260, 900 loads were
carted to the low lots which abound in
South Brooklyn and elsewhere. 1t is near
these dumps, in miserable novels, that the
last, but by no means the least, class of this
great family of ragpickers dwell. They are
up betimes in the morning awaiting the ar
I1Val OF tne ash carts Ike as many VulCureS
would await the coming of prey, and no
carTion crows ever plunged their talons in
the carcass of dead cow with more vorac-
ity than these people settle down to frouzy
examination of the ash heaps. A person
would suppose that little remains in the
ashes after the rummaging of The italian
street pickers. But men, women and chill
dren by the hundreds work there with bag
and basket from sunrise TO sunset. Old
coal scuttles, pots, kettles, pans, broken
crockery, hats, caps, bonnets, cast off gar
ments, feathers, coal, wood and multitudes
of similar articles are taken to the finders
shanties and cleaned and repaired for per-
sonal use. Old metal, rags, paper, bonas,
bottles, tin cans and scraps of tin, hair,
corzs, bits Of leather and rope are carried
away for assortment and sale-BrooIlyn
Eagle.